By Emmet Cole
This new month-to-month sequence from IEEE RAS showcases a number of robotics tales from society, enterprise, analysis, and tradition, as we monitor the sphere’s ongoing journey from specialised industrial machines to an more and more seen social phenomenon.
Technological isolationism or prudence?
On July 28, the US’ Federal Communications Fee blocked new foreign-made “superior robotic gadgets” from receiving the gear authorization wanted on the market in the US, citing supply-chain vulnerabilities and cybersecurity dangers.
The block applies to networked humanoids, quadrupeds, different qualifying cell robots weighing greater than 4.4 lb. In a parallel motion, the FCC additionally restricted foreign-produced related energy inverters.
Current approved fashions are unaffected for now, and exemptions or conditional approvals could also be out there.
Response is predictably combined. Georg Stieler, a worldwide robotics advisor and managing director for Asia at STM, informed The Robotic Report:
“Within the close to time period, the measure may sluggish U.S. bodily AI innovation by chopping startups and researchers off from future low-cost Chinese language platforms earlier than comparable Western options exist. It additionally opens alternatives for U.S. suppliers and allied producers in a position to localize manufacturing within the U.S. or receive conditional approval. But excluding international merchandise is just not the identical as constructing a aggressive industrial base.”
In the meantime, John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the Home Choose Committee on China, informed Reuters that the FCC transfer “protects our nation and strengthens our nation’s robotics business.”
On July 30, Reuters reported that China’s Commerce Ministry threatened to “resolutely retaliate” if the US maintains the restrictions and urged the US to instantly withdraw the ban.
Anticipate this story to run and run over the approaching weeks, with many peaks and valleys for numerous stakeholders.
Talking of peaks and valleys, Unitree Robotics’ newly launched Tremendous Athlete AS2-W appears to deal with them fairly nicely…
Ghostly smudges, puffins & rising ivy
Researchers at Northwestern College have developed a drone that just about disappears whereas in plain view. Dubbed ‘Phantom Twist’, the drone spins as much as 25 occasions per second, which is simply too quick for the human eye to see clearly. As a substitute, the drone turns into a “ghostly smudge” that blends into its surroundings.
The machine could possibly be used to watch wildlife, survey the surroundings and examine infrastructure with much less visible disruption. Covert surveillance purposes could also be a short while off although, because the propellors announce the drone’s presence with nice gusto.
In the meantime, researchers at MIT and EPFL unveiled an ingenious 250-gram robotic that may fly, dive beneath the water, swim after which launch itself again into the air utilizing the identical pair of versatile, flapping wings.
Impressed by diving birds together with puffins and petrels, the Flapping-wing Aerial Aquatic Car cruises by means of the air at 6.3 metres per second and swims at virtually one metre per second. The crew envisages future variations flying to distant or hazardous waters to watch algal blooms, coral reefs, pollution, fisheries and coastal erosion.
Have you ever ever been out biking within the rain and located your self wishing for a raincoat that might put itself on robotically when you experience? Kim Nam Gyun at South Korea’s KAIST did. And in July that thought culminated within the unveiling of a robotic know-how, impressed by climbing ivy, that allows an individual to swimsuit up with out utilizing their fingers or requiring help from others.
The vine robotic, which turns the clothes inside out because it strikes up the physique, was developed in collaboration with researchers from Stanford College, and will discover purposes in chip cleanrooms and amongst emergency companies personnel.
Humanoid, all too humanoid
Returning to the subject of valleys for a second, it was uncanny valley time on social media in July following a showcase of the Origin F1 at WAIC 2026 in Shanghai.
Boasting “pure eye contact,” “refined expressions,” and “new skins, new souls” [sic] the robotic provoked each awe and revulsion, and infrequently on the identical time, as is the customized in that unusual area of robotic design.
LG Show supplied a contrasting design imaginative and prescient at Ok-Show 2026, presenting a curved OLED “face” for humanoid robots that communicates by means of intentionally synthetic expressions quite than trying to cross as human.
A new Bayesian mannequin of the uncanny valley printed in July may present robotic designers with a framework for dealing with uncanny valley design points in future.
The crew from the College of Tokyo observe that current pointers, “equivalent to adopting robot-like appearances, avoiding extreme realism, and lowering cross-modal mismatches, stay tough to make use of for algorithmic design as a result of they don’t seem to be expressed as manipulable variables.”
The researchers suggest a hierarchical Bayesian generative mannequin that operationalizes these pointers as mathematical design variables. In impact, the mannequin makes an attempt to show broad recommendation equivalent to “keep away from extreme realism” into variables that designers can manipulate and take a look at.
Separate from robotic design questions and complexities, it’s, as a common rule in life and robotics, higher to maintain your head whereas throughout you might be shedding theirs. Though that message didn’t appear to get by means of a humanoid combating robotic at a latest occasion in China, with Pythonesque outcomes…
Historic RoboCup match
On July 5, at RoboCup 2026, two full groups of full-sized humanoid robots performed an 11-vs-11 soccer match for the primary time, bringing considered one of robotics’ most bold long-term visions nearer to actuality. The milestone match featured B-Human from Bremen, Germany vs HTWK Robots from Leipzig, Germany.
RoboCup’s long-term goal is gloriously bold:
By the center of the twenty first century, a crew of absolutely autonomous humanoid robotic soccer gamers shall win a soccer recreation, complying with the official guidelines of FIFA, in opposition to the winner of the latest World Cup.
Do you suppose RoboCup’s goal is attainable? Will robots ever prevail over human tiki-taka? Drop us a line at ras@ieee.org.
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS)
strives to advance innovation, schooling, and basic and utilized analysis in robotics and automation